Series Nine: Exercising Spiritual Gifts for the Edification of the Body

The purpose of this study is to understand the broad and specific categories which Scripture uses to discuss the spiritual gifts. Furthermore, this study will differentiate between the gifts given to the New Testament apostles and prophets from the gifts given to the broader body of Christ.

Grace enablements are identifiable in two general categories: the speaking gifts and the serving gifts (1 Pet 4:11).

General Categories of Gifts

1. Speaking gifts will be clearly identifiable. You can speak the utterances of God in a way that edifies people.
2. If you do not have speaking gifts, you must be in the category of serving.
3. Some have both gifting categories to some degree.
   1. It’s not necessarily important that you decide today which category you are in, and with which nuance.
      1. Each one has a unique combination of gifts that are brought to the body in unique ways.
      2. As you mature in the Spirit of God, your gifting becomes evident as others see the fruit.
      3. If you cannot discern the fruit, just keep serving. In heaven, the Lord will open our eyes to all the fruit we could not see.
   2. It is important that we obey 1 Peter 4:10!
      1. “Employ it in serving one another”—we are called to give our life toward this task.
      2. Go to the body of Christ and the relationships God has given you, and in fervent love and humble sober-mindedness, serve their needs.
      3. Paul says in Romans 1:11, “I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you.” He didn’t know what gift he was going to give them.
         1. What were the needs?
         2. It could have been to teach a series on something.
         3. It could have been to get rid of some false teachers.
         4. Did families and marriages need counseling?
         5. Perhaps he was needed behind the scenes to show off the character of Christ in love, prayer, and faithfulness.
   3. You will not see the evidence of fruit if you do not supply what you are called to provide.
      1. A holy life with humble obedience to God’s commands
      2. The knowledge of and belief in God’s Word—a renewed mind (Rom 12:1–2)

Lists of More Specifically-Identified Spiritual Gifts

1. In Romans 12:6–8 Paul identifies the sign gifts in the early church and some of the gifts that continue today.
   1. Apostolic era only
      • Prophecy (v. 6)
        1. Revelatory offices (apostles and prophets) revealed the heart and mind of God in the New Covenant.
        2. They were like the prophets of old, who were given the truth in their minds, and they spoke it exactly as God gave it to them.
        3. The prophets in the apostolic era of the church taught and wrote exactly what the Spirit of God revealed to them.
        4. The apostles and prophets laid the foundation of the New Covenant work of the church (Eph 2:20; cf. 1 Cor 12:28–29).
   2. Throughout the church age
      • The categories of gifts are listed in general terms. The gifts are distributed by God in a multitude of unique ways and are often exercised in combination.
      1. Service (v. 7)
         • This corresponds with 1 Peter 4:11.
      2. Teaching (v. 7)
         • This word group (didaskalía) means to put it accurately into the mind with implications to convict your will.
      3. Exhortation (v. 8)
         • This is an enablement by the Holy Spirit to exhort the will in such a way that people are moved by the truth.
      4. Giving (v. 8)
         1. The giver blesses and loves the church through the sacrificial nature of their giving.
         2. It is not necessarily through money.
         3. The blessing is in the modeling of giving as well as in the practical result of the giving.
      5. Leadership (v. 8)
         1. Natural leadership qualities are different.
         2. This is the term (proḯstēmi) for the ability to be out ahead of others.
         3. The Spirit of God gives the ability to organize and to show the way.
         4. The dynamic is to mobilize efforts for a particular task.
         5. These may not be visible, but when the Spirit grips them for the work of the ministry, the church benefits.
      6. Mercy (v. 8)
         1. We are all called to be merciful, but this Spirit-produced enablement goes beyond the level of most of us.
         2. Sometimes God puts the exhorter right next to the merciful in a bedside ministry, so the exhorter learns.
         3. In other situations, mercy people who don’t often rebuke are placed next to the exhorters in situations where we should be bold, and where there may be laziness or unbelief.
2. In 1 Corinthians 12:8–10 Paul identifies more of the sign/revelatory gifts, which did not continue after the apostolic era.
   1. The list
      1. Wisdom through the Spirit (v. 8)
      2. Knowledge according to the Spirit (v. 8)
      3. Faith by the Spirit (v. 9)
      4. Gifts of healing (v. 9)
      5. Effecting of miracles (powers associated with casting out demons) (v. 10)
      6. The prophetic work (v. 10)
      7. The distinguishing of spirits (v. 10)
      8. The gift of tongues (i.e., languages) (v. 10)
      9. The revelatory gift of the interpretation of languages (v. 10)
   2. The context
      1. Paul explains the miraculous gifts here because they were important for the church in Corinth, since there were unbelieving Jews in the church.
      2. The sign gifts were important to attest to the fact that the gospel of Jesus Christ was not for Jews only but also for gentiles.
      3. On the whole, Israel did not conceive of a Messiah for the gentile nations. It was shocking for the Jews that both Jew and gentile would have access to the Father.
      4. God accompanied the message with miraculous gifts in the early days of the church with a slow tapering off when Jew and gentile were brought together in the New Covenant as it was written down by the apostles.
      5. Once the miracle of the Scriptures attesting to the New Covenant were in place, there was no more purpose for the Spirit of God to work such gifts in the church.